Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Society of Equalsby Pierre Rosanvallon(Harvard University Press, 2013)384 pagesDescriptionSince the 1980s, society’s wealthiest members have claimed an ever-expanding share of income and property. It has been a true counterrevolution, says Pierre Rosanvallon — the end of the age of growing equality launched by the American and French revolutions. And just as significant as the social and economic factors driving this contemporary inequality has been a loss of faith in the ideal of equality itself. An ambitious transatlantic history of the struggles that, for two centuries, put political and economic equality at their heart, The Society of Equals calls for a new philosophy of social relations to reenergize egalitarian politics.There is no returning to the days of the redistributive welfare state. Rather than resort to outdated notions of social solidarity, we must instead revitalize the idea of equality according to principles of singularity, reciprocity, and communality that more accurately reflect today’s realities.Contents [preview]Introduction: The Crisis of Equality1. The Invention of Equality2. The Pathologies of Equality3. The Century of Redistribution4. The Great Reversal5. The Society of Equals: A Preliminary Outline

Saturday, October 12, 2013

A Companion to RawlsEd. by Jon Mandle & David A. Reidy(Wiley-Blackwell, October 2013)587 pagesFrom the Introduction"It is now more than 10 years since John Rawls died in 2002, at the age of 81, and more than 60 years since his first publication in 1951. Yet, his work continues to occupy a unique and central position in contemporary political philosophy. Over the years it has generated an enormous secondary literature and sparked numerous interpretive and critical debates. The recent publication of Rawls's Princeton undergraduate thesis and his Harvard lectures in moral and political philosophy and the archival processing by Harvard of Rawls's unpublished papers, lectures, letters, annotated books, and so on, have only served further to stimulate interest in and debate over Rawls's work, often raising new questions, reviving debates thought to be settled, and suggesting new ways of understanding Rawls's work. With all this in mind, we were keen to produce with this volume not so much a summary of past scholarly work as a serviceable roadmap for current and future work on Rawls. Accordingly, we asked our contributors to address themselves to the themes and issues that in their view will or should occupy the attention of scholars engaged or likely to engage in this work." Contents [preview]Introduction - Jon Mandle & David A. ReidyPart I. Ambitions1. From Philosophical Theology to Democratic Theory - David A. Reidy2. Does Justice as Fairness Have a Religious Aspect? [pdf] - Paul Weithman

Part II. Method3. Constructivism as Rhetoric - Anthony Simon Laden4. Kantian Constructivism - Larry Krasnoff5. The Basic Structure of Society as the Primary Subject of Justice - Samuel Freeman6. Rawls on Ideal and Nonideal Theory - Adam Swift & Zofia Stemplowska7. “The Choice from the Original Position” - Jon MandlePart III. A Theory of Justice8. The Priority of Liberty - Robert S. Taylor9. Applying Justice as Fairness to Institutions - Colin M. Macleod10. Democratic Equality as a Work-in-Progress - Stuart White11. Stability, a Sense of Justice, and Self-Respect - Thomas E. Hill, Jr12. Political Authority, Civil Disobedience, Revolution - Alexander KaufmanPart IV. A Political Conception13. The Turn to a Political Liberalism [pdf] - Gerald Gaus14. Political Constructivism [doc] - Aaron James15. On the Idea of Public Reason [pdf] - Jonathan Quong16. Overlapping Consensus - Rex Martin17. Citizenship as Fairness - Richard Dagger18. Inequality, Difference, and Prospects for Democracy - Erin I. KellyPart V Extending Political Liberalism: International Relations19. The Law of Peoples - Huw Lloyd Williams20. Human Rights - Gillian Brock21. Global Poverty and Global Inequality - Richard W. Miller22. Just War - Darrel MoellendorfPart VI. Conversations with Other Perspectives23. Rawls, Mill, and Utilitarianism - Jonathan Riley24. Perfectionist Justice and Rawlsian Legitimacy - Steven Wall25. Rawlsian Liberalism versus Libertarianism - Barbara H. Fried26. The Young Marx and the Middle-Aged Rawls - Daniel Brudney27. Challenges of Global and Local Misogyny [abstract] - Claudia Card28. Critical Theory and Habermas - Kenneth Baynes29. Rawls and Economics - Daniel Little30. Learning from the History of Political Philosophy - S.A. Lloyd31. Rawls and the History of Moral Philosophy - Paul GuyerJon Mandle is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University at Albany. He is the author of "Global Justice" (Polity Press, 2006) and "Rawls's A Theory of Justice: An Introduction" (Cambridge University Press, 2009) David A. Reidy is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee. He is co-editor (with Martin Rex) of "Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?" (Blackwell, 2006).

Friday, October 11, 2013

Social Europe Journal, together with its partners for this project - the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the IG Metall, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Hans Böckler Stiftung and the French Institute Lasaire - has published an eBook with 43 articles on different aspects of the European social dimension written in spring and summer 2013.The book has three principal sections: In the ﬁrst part, some of Europe’s most prestigious thinkers and analysts make the connection between the discussion about Social Europe and the wider European malaise. One cannot discuss the social dimension in isolation but has to link it to the wider debate about the future of European integration if you want to be realistic, up-to-date and relevant.Following this, the second part brings together trade union views "from the ground" across Europe. European political discussions are often perceived as detached from the real lives of people in the member states and the discussion about Social Europe is no exception. Therefore we collected the views of European and national trade union leaders and thus added an important dimension that has often found too little appreciation. In the third and ﬁnal part, some of the best experts in the ﬁeld address a series of more speciﬁc issues related to the social dimension of the European Union and make recommendations for how to tackle them.The essays in the first section of the book are:Democracy, Solidarity And the European Crisis- Jürgen HabermasEurope Is Trapped Between Power And Politics - Zygmunt BaumanPragmatism, Idealism And European Demoicracy- Kalypso NicoalidïsWhat Is The Social Dimension Of The EU? - Martin Seeleib-KaiserWhat Does A Social Europe Look Like Today? - Jean-Paul Fitoussi and Xavier TimbeauSocial Policy Will Be Critical To A Sustainable EMU - Simon DeakinSocial Europe Is The Only Solution- Robin WilsonEurope’s Democracy Deficit: Putting Some Meat On The Bones Of Habermas’ Critique- Steven HillThe Euro-Dividend - Philippe van Parijs

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

On September 29, 2013, Jürgen Habermas received the Kassel Prize "Das Glas der Vernunft".Habermas received the prize because of his commitment to a common European future and a cosmopolitical oriented world society. See the report in the German TV channel Hessenschau.See also two reports in the German newspapers: